[Imme (Jon)]

Final bearings turned up yesterday so mount was put back together. Setting up the RA block was fairly simple although i must admit a little strange and I wasn't sure if I'd done it correctly (still not actually as there isn't a great deal of info on the net regarding this thing!). Following the very comprehensive and clear instruction booklet i took out the backlash....meaning there was no side to side movement on the RA axis (think worm gear mesh rocking back and forth between drive ring gear teeth). I then tightened an extra half turn. I still had movement back and forth and this stumped me for a while....the gears were meshed, it wasn't a normal noticeable 'click, click' between gears meshing, it was more of a smooth 'tensioned' movement either side of an obvious centre point. It wasn't until halfway through my second beer I came to the conclusion this was the spring doing it's thing and taking up backlash (well I hope that's what it is!). The one thing I will note with this thing which is a little disappointing.....the worm mesh adjustment grub screws are the same size as the original mount. I feel they could have gone at least one size up as the adjustment process with a spring included in the mix (meaning additional pressure) seemed to push them to the limit a little.
DEC axis gear was also adjusted and came up pretty good I think.

Mount was put back in the Ob's doing a polar alignment with Sharpcap (gotta love it). PA error ended up at 0.24"....that'll do me!

Seeing last night I think wasn't the best so probably not a great night to test the new rig. SkippySky gave me a 6-7 on their scale for my location. I had high smoke from a burnoff to contend with, however, initial testing seems pretty positive. Guiding hovered around 1"rms which is fine for what I need.
I'm pretty sure once I spend a night tweaking the PHD settings and doing some final mesh adjustments once the mount settles in I'll be able to improve on that. No real backlash on the RA axis from what I could see during the quick test session I had before bed. I'm looking forward to doing some more rigorous testing on it when I can

All in all I'm pretty happy so far.......give me a few weeks to play and fine tune and I think I'll be more than happy with how it pans out.

Oh.....and the noise reduction from the belt mod...outstanding!